Taliban pledge to continue fighting as Obama approves US troops to stay through 2015

The Taliban says it has been left with no alternative but to continue its fight against the US. They made the statement hours after President Barack Obama delayed withdrawing American troops, saying the US would stay in Afghanistan until the end of 2015.

The announcement from the Taliban came from spokesman Zabihullah
Mujaahid, who said that the decision by President Obama to leave
9,800 US troops in Afghanistan was not going to do anything to
help a resurgent Taliban continue peace talks with the Afghan
government.

"Obama's announcement to continue to keep troops in
Afghanistan is a response to the peace efforts," Mujahid
told AFP.

"This damages all the prospects for peace. This means the war
will go on until they are defeated," he added.

The Taliban were incensed by a decision by President Obama to
leave US troops in Afghanistan through 2015. He was planning to
cut the number of troops from the current 9,800 to 5,000 by the
end of this year, withdrawing completely by the end of 2016.

However, Obama has since backtracked, and with the blessing of
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, has decided to keep US forces in
the Central Asian nation for longer. The US president has still
stated that he intends to honor the country’s proposed pullout at
the end of 2016.

"As part of the ongoing NATO mission, the United States will
continue to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces."
—President Obama

"The date for us to have completed our drawdown will not
change," he said, according to Reuters. "Providing this
additional timeframe during this fighting season for us to be
able to help the Afghan security forces succeed is well worth
it."

Since being elected to power in September 2014, Afghan President
Ashraf Ghani has tried to initiate a peace process with the
Taliban, to try and end their 13-year campaign against the Afghan
government and its foreign backers – primarily the US.

President Ghani is currently on a visit to Washington, and he met
with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday. During their
meeting, Kerry said the US was fully committed to Afghanistan and
it would show the Taliban that Washington was “prepared for the
long-term to support our friends,” while also adding that he
hoped it would encourage peace talks with the Taliban.

Kerry also praised the Afghan government, saying: “There is
good news for Afghanistan. Life expectancy has risen by 20 years.
Healthcare access has risen dramatically. The number of children
in schools has risen from some just 900,000, who were all boys,
to eight million now, of which 40 percent are girls. The overall
economy has been growing and the overall security forces are now
larger and more capable.”

However, Matthew Hoh, a former State Department official, says
the US has little interest in helping the long term development
of the whole of Afghanistan and the billions of dollars
Washington is providing, is used by the Afghan government to help
them stay in power.

“It’s only going to help the security of city of Kabul and
keep the city safe and in the hands of the Afghan government. It
will also allow the Afghan government to have a presence in the
big centers, where there are US troops who will provide them with
security,” he said.

“American money and other nations who pump billions of
dollars into the Afghan economy allows for Ashraf Ghani, just as
his predecessor Mohammad Karsi did, to run a patronage network, a
kleptocracy that is founded on corruption and ill-gotten wealth
that allows them to keep themselves in power,” Hoh
concluded.

However, 2014 was the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the UN
began compiling figures in 2009. A report published by the United
Nations in February revealed 3,699 civilians were killed in
Afghanistan in 2014, which is a rise of 730 from the previous
year. Perhaps more worryingly, there has been an increase every
year in the number of civilian deaths since 2009, figures from
the UN report show.

Armed confrontations between militants and security forces in
Afghanistan have also intensified in recent years, as the number
of Taliban fighters has skyrocketed from 2,000 to around 60,000,
since the US-led invasion in 2001. In 2014 Afghanistan lost over
5,000 police and soldiers who were killed fighting the Taliban,
which is more than in any previous year.

“I don't think it's possible to find peace in Afghanistan
without actually sitting down with insurgents, with the Taliban,
to negotiate a peace process. More than a decade of the US war in
Afghanistan has been a complete failure, the US has deployed tens
of thousands of troops and still haven't been able to put down
this insurgency,” Theo Sitther, of the Peacebuilding Policy
Friends Committee on National Legislation, told RT.

With NATO ending their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end
of December, the Taliban declared victory in the protracted civil
war.

“We consider this step a clear indication of their defeat and
disappointment,” the terror group said in a statement,
arraigning the US-led mission of “barbarism and cruelty” that
left “a pool of blood” behind.

“America, its invading allies... along with all international
arrogant organizations have been handed a clear-cut defeat in
this lopsided war,” claimed the Taliban, which ruled
Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.